Yea.....you know what......I humped her.
As Lyle turned to follow Deth down the hall, something made him stop. Turning he walked cautiously back to the hole leading down to the tracks. Listening carefully, he suddenly made out the sound of a train. Crouching at the edge he waited as the noise got louder and louder.
Then the squeal of brakes was heard as the train stopped at what sounded like right beneath the building. Trying to keep out of sight as much as possible, Lyle peered over the edge, watching as 5th Column soldiers began pouring into view.
Lyle's brow furrowed, his remaining eye narrowing. He saw at least a couple robots lumber by and who knew how many soldiers. This wasn't some supply shipment either, these soldiers were armed for a fight. Lyle sat back from the edge, leaning against the wall.
An ambush was the only explanation for the sheer number and preparedness of the 5th Column, but how had they known the heroes would be there. He could only come up with one explanation. Perhaps the 5th Column had found out about their investigation into the Tsoo drug and magic racket and had taken over this building just to ambush the heroes when they came to check it out.
The appearance of Lobe and the trolls had complicated their plan, but from the looks of things down there, plan B was more than enough to make up for it. However, this raised another question in Lyle's mind. Who had the 5th Column hoped to eliminate? Had this operation been put together merely for a random group of heroes?
Given the Column's usual efficiency, this seemed unlikely. But then who of the heroes had ticked off the soldiers enough for this kind of retaliation. Lyle had certainly gotten in their way before and DID have a little history with the group, but nothing on this scale.
Shouts from below indicated that the soldiers had noticed the hole above them. Lyle stood, arming a grenade and tossing it down the hole. Then he fired a grenade from his rifle into the ceiling above, sending debris down, blocking up the hole in the floor.
He heard the sound of the other grenade exploding and hoped he had managed to take out at least one of the robots. He ran back down the hall, turning back as a door behind him exploded inward, 5th Column pouring through. Lyle threw the automatic rounds switch on his rifle and opened fire.
Sly groaned as the healing patch went to work, and he slowly raised his head.
"Thanks Haunt, I owe you... remind me to consider you FSS material..."
He slowly stood, rotated his shoulder a bit, and looked around... his minions were evaporating, but Haunt and Lobe had easily handled the Trolls before the illusionary help was gone. Good... now he just needed to get everyone together an--
The explosions he heard from somewhere in the building cut off this current train of thought, and he immedietly was concerned for the rest of the team.
"We are too spread out! Haunt, Lobe, follow me! Raise the others on the com if you can, all I'm getting is interference!"
With a burst of renewed energy (god bless those Fitness trainers at MAGI) Sly ran in the direction of what he thought was the explosion.
Thankfully he was heading right towards the direction Deth was headed... not so great, was what was right behind her... and Lyle would doubtfully be able to hold it back for long.
Flame stood in a situation she hadn't quite expected, somehow she had figuredthe girl would either attack her, or take care of the trolls who were now beginning to recover.
Flame quickly created fire cages around them all and followed up with a flash of sparks and flames, ruining their eyes. Well...most of them anyway. A gardvord had managed to get a new dose of rage, she knew the green glow all too well and wasn't at all surprised when he stepped right through the fire cage, ignoring the pain of the flames.
Flame put up here forcefield once again. He wouldn't be able to harm her, now she just had to wait for the rage to be over.
Haunt rose to his feet after regaining his strength and turned to Fox.
"Thanks Haunt, I owe you... remind me to consider you FSS material..."
"Don't be surprised if I hold you to that, on both counts," Haunt replied with a half chuckle. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the grenade went off unexpectedly, then scrambled after Sly and Lobe after regaining his composure, Eidolon covering their rear.
"Man, has everything gone apesh-err," he gave Lobe a wary glance,"crazy in here?" he groaned after catching up with the other two heroes.
"After this is over, I'm giving my contact a serious peice of my mind about the validity of his tips.." he added as the continued down the hallway of the ruined building.
The voices were getting louder as Nathan moved deeper into the building, he couldnt quite make out the words but it was apparent there was someone ahead of him.
"Ive got such a bad feeling about this" he muttered to himself, taking small comfort in the force field around him. "Now where the hell are they?"
He turned a corner and stopped dead in his tracks, jaw falling open in disbeleif. What must have been a hundred fifth column soldiers were sitting a few feet away in a large open room, servicing their weapons. Swallowing hard, Nathan slowly moved back out of sight around the corner, wondering if he had been seen.
"...holy hell..." he whispered, trying to decide what to do next. "Now i see what Tony was talking about..."
After a few moments, Nathan ran back down the hall in the direction he had come from, backtracking in an attempt to find another passage.
Lyle ran down the hallway, rifle fire tearing up the floor behind him. A grenade impacted a little too close, sending him flying through the air. Skidding across the floor, he quickly pulled himself behind a corner, wincing as something in his side moved in a way it wasn't meant to.
Sticking out his rifle, he fired blindly down the hall, hoping to keep the soldiers at bay. A jet of flame caused him to draw back from the corner.
"Give it up, old man," he heard one of the soldiers shout, "we've got you totally outnumbered. Come out now and we may let you live."
"Yeah right," Lyle thought to himself, but slowly stood, walking carefully from behind the corner, holding his rifle by it's strap. The soldier in the lead smiled, then gave an order. Guns immediatly raised, pointing at Lyle.
The old man stood still, watching the 5th column in front of him. Suddenly, he dove to the side, his free hand suddenly drawing the Desert Eagle that had been stuck in the back of his belt before he walked out.
The soldiers opened fire, bullets whizzing by Lyle as he fell to the side. He felt a couple rounds tear through his left arm and shoulder as he brought the handgun up, firing one shot as he fell. The bullet flew towards the group, hitting the fuel tank of the flamethrower.
The explosion took out the walls and the ceiling of the hall, dropping most of the hallway into the floor below. Lyle was thrown back, crashing through the wall behind him. For a while he lay admist the broken wood and debris.
"Well," he said finally, picking himself up painfully from the ruined wall, "that worked out pretty well."
Ivory counted the explosions in his head while smiling but then a third explosion caught his attention. Seeing nobody around as he glanced from side to side, still out front of the building, he waved his palm throuh the air bringing his rifle quickly through the air to his hand, letting it rest against his shoulder. With a few turns of his wristwatch, Ivory again stepped through a gaping hole in the real world and into the black and white shadows of Limbo.
"Slowly walking along Ivory semed oblivious to Lyle falling ot his side, the frozen images of the 5th column soldiers suspended in midair, a cascade of fire captured in perfect clarity erupting from tanks mounted on the back of a soldier: Ivory walked through it all without so much as a look. As he passed the group of soldiers that had been too far down the hall to suffer from the explosion, Ivory took a canister from his jacket and pulled the pin, when he pushed it through the veil of Limbo it sat suspended above the solders.
Continuing down the hall Ivory came to a drop and to his suprise a small train station, cars and all with 5th column elite still filing out, a duo of robots stood like ominous statues to protect the train at its openings. Ivory stopped where he was and fished a small explosive from his jacket and punched at the keypad on top of it. The bomb set for 15 seconds, he once again thrust it through the veil where it sat frozen on the floor below him.
Ivory continued his little tou of sabotage from th safety of Limbo. A couple of mines placed at the very front of the waves of soldiers exiting the train cars, a timed explosive on the side of the head of one robot, a wb grenade fastened at the waist of the other. Smoke grenades before Lyle and a timed explosive to cover the retreat.
All the time in Limbo was making Ivory sweat from exhertion, but he wasn't ready to cease his nearly instantaneous travel just yet.
Ivory strolled up to Lyle, still frozen in place, inches from the ground after having fired upon the tanks that were causing such an explosion brilliant and grand, but only lifeless and frozen here.
Ivory carefully placed himself behind Lyle before stepping out of Limbo to see the fire burst forward and blow half the hallway to mulch Ivory offered his hand to Lyle and spoke calmly.
"Need a hand?"
At that moment the end of the halway unconsumed by the explosion burst into billowing clouds of grey smoke and a thundering series of explosions could be heard and felt, their force sending dust and light debris from the cieling to rain on top of the two like a fine mist. Ivory smiled to Lyle.
"In about 10 seconds, there will be another one." Ivory pulled Lyle to his feet. "Should even the odds a bit, where are the others?"
Ivory was incorrect. It had been 11 seconds before another explosion rocked the building, finishing off the group that had come for Lyle.
"D@mned if I know," Lyle growled in answer to Ivory's question about the others. "That nutjob of a girl got dosed with Rage and I had to get before she decided to tear my head off." Two or three explosions rocked the building, not seeming to surprise Ivory at all.
Lyle thought back to the black and white void they had walked through to enter the office building, everything seeming frozen around them. 'Pretty dam useful,' he thought to himself.
"Last I saw the others, they were headed for where the main lobby used to be." The building was in such a state of decay that navigating was next to impossible. Fishing his rifle out of the debris he checked his ammo counters, making a mental note that there were only two grenades left in the back-up chambers.
"Have to remember to reload those," he thought. Listening carefully, he thought he could here something on the floor above them. Of course, whether it was the other heroes or more 5th Column, he had no idea.
As the explosions reached Nathan's cybernetically enhanced ears he winced, the hearing amplifiers installed beneath his skull blasting the sound for a split second before automatically readjusting to dull it. After the pain cleared, he heard a large number of voices shouting from behind him, along with the loud clicking of automatic weapons being loaded.
"Damnit, what the hell was that?" Nathan muttered, breaking into a run to try and put some distance between the fifth column regiments and himself.
As he cleared a large pile of rubble and turned a corner he came face to face with Haunt, Lobe and Sly Fox, nearly running right into them.
"You... youve got to be the ones Tony sent me to find." Nathan said, looking nervously back around the corner he had just turned. "Names Nathan, been sent to warn you, this place is a fifth column base... you need to get the hell out of here right now."
A loud voice shouted a few commands in broken english from behind him, the words carrying around the corner.
"Right bloody now!" Nathan said, expanding a dispersion bubble around the three stunned heroes, motioning for them to move.
As the dispersion bubble expanded aroun the heroes the corridor took on an ominous silence noticed even by the broken regiment rushing twords the stunned heroes who came to an uneasy halt because of it.
The entire hallways creeked and moaned as the soldiers slowly advanced upon the group encompassed in green and blue swirling clouds of force. The silence was finally broken by the muffled shout of Ivory's voice.
"Lobe! What is your favorite drink?!" came the muffled shout, a question that made everyone stare at eachother for a moment witha confused look on their face, all but lobe who was all too pleased to answer.
"Oh Jay!"
With those two words, bullets rang from below sending splinters of wood and broken plaster into the air before the group of soldiers who stopped their slow advance. When no more shots came the soldier at lead laughed as he took a step forward.
"You mizzet! You voolz!"
But his taunting laughter was ceased as the floor sank beneath him. Cracking timbers and bending metal were like the groaning of a great beast as the floor bent and finally gave way at the point where the bullets had broken through the already failing foundations of the floor.
With screams of suprise, the front of the regimine slid from their footing and fell to the floor below, then through the hole recently created by Lyle's own doing.
The few soldiers that remained above began firing at the heroes protected by Nathan's shield.
The gardvord had finally dropped out of his rage, and Flame dropped her shield so she could actually do some damage to the trolls.
She recreated the cage, blinded their eyes with another flash of fire and set the ground beneath her on fire. None of this would really do too much damage, but if she got five minutes without any interruption it might take them down. Ofcourse getting 5 uninterrupted minutes in a 5th column base was rather optimistic.
Sometimes she wondered why she didn't carry a gun as well, after all, her powers could hardly light a cigarette.
"Oh friggin wonderful... A trap... Now how many explosions do I have to hear today before all these Fascist Freaks are gone?"
Sly didn't have time to hear an answer, for the soldiers began firing. He wasn't even sure who he was talking to...
He teleported across the hole created by Lyle, and with a blinding light from his hands made the remaining group see... well, nothing at all.
He raised his arms and called down a burst of freezing rain after that, and then motioned for the three to join him and mop us these miscreants...
But he was worried... he was quite worried... could the column have orchestrated this entire thing... the artifacts, the drugs, the hunt for Lobe that just HAPPENED to coincide with the location that odd girl had marked...
Could they really still be mad at him shutting down Project Hercules? Sly did still have the plans and formulas he had taken as proof back at FSS HQ under lock and key... evidence for the hearing.
If that was what this entire thing was about, Sly was at a loss as to how they managed it. Regardless, if everyone was here, and in danger, because of him... he couldn't let that happen.
Lobe and Haunt had the situation under control, but Sly called a sudden storm of freezing winds to slow the remainder down.
"Never underestimate the use of a snow storm... words I learned from a certain Mistress of Fire..."
Then Sly turned to this new arrival.
"Alright... "Nathan..." how the hell did you know this was an ambush? Who ummm... ARE they after?
... and did you happen to see a very beautiful woman with smokey eyes and a similar hat like mine on your way in?"
Sly turned around and punched a staggering soldier, sending him crashing backwards, then turned back.
"Well??"
Swearing under his breath, Nathan leaped across the hole in the floor to keep Sly Fox in range of his dispersion field, landing with a dangerous creaking of flooring beside him.
"Tell the truth friend, im not really interested in explaining things right now" he shouted over the sounds of the fight. "You've got to trust me, this place is full of fifth..."
No sooner had he spoken the words than a new wave of soldiers flooded into the hallway a dozen yards away, raising their weapons in unison to point them directly at the heroes.
"You dont understand bud!" Nathan said, blasting an energy torrent into the midst of the soldiers around Fox, Lobe and Haunt, knocking them to the ground. "This is just a few of them... i saw more... and if my contact was right there are also..."
The loud sound of chaingun fire from the floor below cut him off as a regiment of Wolfpack robots clomped into view directly under the hole Lyle had made. Without stopping to hear a reply from Sly Fox, Nathan leaped back across the broken flooring, teleporting the three heroes back over the gap, pulling them bodily around the corner at the end of the hallway.
"Explinations later!" he shouted over the voices of the fifth column soldiers. "We dont have time! Youve got to trust me..."
Lyle jumped back against the wall as the chaingun fire tore up the floor in front of him. They were getting nowhere fast, and the Column just seemed to keep coming. Leaning toward the hole, he let a burst of rounds into it, hoping to drive the machines back a little.
"Don't suppose you've got any ingenious plan to get us out of here in one piece." he said, dryly to Ivory.
Lobe began to look as if he'd been on a monster rollercoaster for the past hour while it's velocity governor was on the fritz. Looking slightly green from all the motion and powers being used on him, he shook his head trying to get his bearings. "Oh boy, Lobe is lost. Where is Lady Deth?" he asked Sly as they trundled down another hallway, following the new addition - Nathan.
The floor creaked in protest with each of Lobe's steps, some of which left actual depressions, which Haunt and Sly had to navigate. As Lobe waited for Sly's response, or perhaps forgetting he'd asked the question entirely, he poked at the bubble surrounding him, "Ooh, pretty! Lobe likes bubbles, yup." Then, remembering, "Hey! Where's my OJ? I am awfully thirsty."
The girl had watched the others fighting the soldiers from within the ceiling. She had descended at one point, decided there were just too many people there, she turned and scurried back the other way, but not before grabbing a small canister from a fallen soldier. She had seen them use the canisters before and as she crawled through the ceiling she tried to think of something to do with it.
She soon began to hear the sounds of fire and followed it. Peering out of the cracks in the ceiling she watched the lady from before sending fire at the group of trolls.
Here was something for her to do. The lady didn't look powerful enough to take out all the trolls with one shot or anything. That would give her time to have a little fun. Kicking through the boards, she dropped down behind the fire-user.
Jumping over the lady, she tore open the valve on the flamethrower canister. Landing in front of the flaming trolls, she threw out her right arm, shoving the metal cylinder into the flames. A ball of flame flashed in the air, throwing those near it head over heels.
As the explosion settled, the girl pulled herself up from the floor. Small flames still licked at her now-tattered clothing and her right arm smoked heavily. The girl looked briefly at her right hand, burnt down to skeletal remains, flexing it once and then scurrying over to the fire lady. This one seemed to be able to find fun stuff to do, maybe she'd hang around her for awhile.
"Don't suppose you've got any ingenious plan to get us out of here in one piece."
Ivory was sitting casually on the carpeted floor of the hallway, or perhaps the remnants of it. "All that walking around has me a bit tired." Ivory spoke as he leaned against the wall, resting as if it were a calm, summer day in the park. When he noticed the questioning look he was getting from Lyle for his comment he chuckled and patted his left leg in front of him. "Dodgy knee." he joked.
Sly frowned in deep thought of Lobe's question as he followed this "Nathan."
"I don't know, big guy, I don't know... but I'm not leaving till we find her..." He said this last a bit loud so their recent 'savior' could hear him.
Nathan paused, absently touching the plastisteel plate that had replaced the right half of his face as he stared at Sly Fox.
"Look... I know this is kind of sudden, but you saw what we're up against didnt you?" He said, glancing nervously in the direction that they had come from. "I dont like leaving people behind though... Your friend, where did you see her last? Maybe if you can give me some kind of approximation and her name i can lock on and teleport her to us..."
Just then, a black helmetted head poked out from around the corner at the far end of the hallway they had just ran down.
"Oh crap..." Nathan muttered, flipping open a panel on his wrist to check the status of his sheilding systems. "We're spotted guys, need to think fast, i can get us out of here but if you want to get your friend we will need to locate her in the near future."
The helmet dissapeared for a moment and a few words were shouted in the familiar broken english used by the fifth column before it re-appeared, obviously a scout signaling to the rest that the heroes were nearby.
"Preferably in the very very near future..." Nathan said, shooting a violent burst of energy out of his palm, cleanly sniping the soldier's head from down the hallway before he could pull back.
Flame was amazed as she watched the girl attack. Even more amazed when she saw the result, and stunned as she saw the girls arm.
"Are you...allright?" Flame was rather worried, if Mark could get Medbot back, perhaps he could do something. Realising that she now had a short moment to breathe, she turned her com-device to the group channel.
"Hey folks, how are we doing?"
Deth was not usually one that got lost, being a 'porter, but this labrynth of jumbled building had confused the hell out of her. She hated being lost. She rounded a corner and ran face to face with one of the new Nacht robots she read about.
Searching her memory quickly, she remembered reading about a vulnerable spot.
About this time she heard ' Target Acquired. Locking on.' It came to her in a dreadful, mechanical voice that every hero dreads to hear. 'Damn,' she hoped Lobe did not hear her. She turned and saw another bigger robot behind her as she turned she heard the other one turn and say, 'Target Acquired. Locking on. Locked and loaded.'
'Double Damn,' she muttered, not caring this time if Lobe heard.
She watched and tensed. She leapt the second that the bullets started firing, somersaulting onto the one behind her.
The bullets embedded themselves in each of the robots. The one that she was one shuddered as a bullet tore into the computer and effectively shut it down.
'Unit Schweiz, Uns, Schweiz, Schweiz temporarily out of action. Attempting repairs. '
She looked up at the other robot as it took aim again, at her head. She leapt right at the larger one, pushing off the smaller one she stood on. Her momentum and the bullets destroying its head caused it to topple over backwards.
'Unit Schweiz, Uns, ..... ah *&@$, I am freaking down you idiot. You shot me. Repeat Unit freaking 2122 is down and you freaking shot me.'
The other robot looked down at him and aimed again. This time a distinct click was heard as a different type round was chambered. BOOM! A large caliber round was fired into the head of the downed bot. Nothing was left of the head.
Deth watched all this with disgust. Sliding down the back of the robot, she read Warwolf Robot ND12-34532 on the back of it. She reached up into a crevice and pulled a wire. The machine powered down. She leapt down as it lened forward from its own weight.
She heard something from the unit. Laughter. ? What was he laughing at?
As if in answer to her unvoiced question, 'Stupid Fraulein, you have spelled your doom.' At that moment, she also realized she heard a count down. ..3... Oh #$%#@...2...She decided it was a good idea to run....1.... She turned and...
Her face hurt as she realized she was kissing the wall more intimately than she ever had Sly Fox.
'Ouch,' she said as she slid down the wall to a sitting position. She reached up to her comm and pressed the tracking button. Hoping that the others would come and get her, soon, as she realized a few bones were broken and possibly she had a concussion. She did not think that she could move as breathing was terribly difficult.
'Rowroooooooooooooooooooooooooggggggghhhh,' something howled.
She looked up and if she had been in less pain she would have fainted. Before her stood a wolf-like creature. However, it was part machine as well.
She pressed the comm button.
'Sly Fox... come in' she whispered.
Static....
A little more urgently. 'S -sly F-fox. c-come in'
'Zzzzz - Deth... at you?'
'I need you to get me out of here right now,' she said urgently, a little to loudly as the Wolfbot turned it gaze toward her and smiled. Well, as well as a mechanical werewolf, hybrid monstrocity could smile.
'S - s - sly, I need you to get me out of here...now.' she gasped painfully.
'Deth, where are you? I am coming to you. Are you hurt? I and the others are making our way to you right now.'
The Wolfbot took a step towards her and when its metal clawed foot hit the ground, the whole floor shook.
'No. Time. When. I. Say. Now. I. Mean. NOW!' she snipped. At the raising of her voice, the monster howled as if on the hunt and she managed to keep the transmit button depressed.
'What was that? '
'Damnit Fox, can we discuss this in a bit, when I am with you. Now is not a good time.' said she, groaning.
The Wolfbot was bending over her and its tepid breath was breathing into her face. It was looking directly into her eyes, its yellow eyes wide with hunger. Its mouth was opening wide and drool was dripping from it onto her uniform.
'My what BIG teeth you have.... Fox, please... now,' the desperation in her voice was urgent. The monstrosity opened its mouth and the teeth only seemed to grow bigger.
Just as the wolfbot was about to close distance, Lady Deth's surroundings flashed a brilliant white and she found herself standing in front of a large man in dark body armor with a large black cloth loosely wrapped around the lower half of his face. A force field immediately coalesced around her body, humming the familiar whine of dispersion that most heroes could recognize in an instant.
"What the..." She said, looking startled as she saw Sly Fox smiling at her from beside the black armored stranger. "Fox?! Thank god, I thought I was..."
"Names Nathan." the stranger replied, nodding curtly, cutting her off in mid sentance. He pointed a large black armored hand over her shoulder, motioning for her to look. As she turned she saw the black uniforms starting to gather on the far side of the hallway, weapons raised.
"Now... can we please get the bloody hell out of here?!" Nathan said, looking over at Sly Fox with desperation in his eyes.
Ivory stood up and brushed the debris from his hair and jacket. He hoisted his rifle over a shoulder an adjusted his tie. As Ivory slowly faded behind a veil of microscopic fibers bending light around him in near perfect symetry he spoke.
"Come to think of it, I do have an idea. Meet me down by that train in 5 minutes."
Footsteps in the dust indicated a casual, slow walk down the hallway and a careful leap through the hole in the ground. As he made his way quietly to the train hidden below the building Ivory thought to himself that had he ever a human childhood, he would have much liked trains.
Haunt glanced at the spectral assistance Fox had summoned, then looked back to Fox; he looked like he was in far worse shape than him.
Eidolon lanced out, striking the buckshot in the chest with a shadowy spine. A pulse of healing energy traveled down the spine and swirled around Haunt, healing his wound. He used the last of his energy to teleport next to Sly and slap a healing patch on his arm. After applying the respite patch, he dropped to his knees and tried to catch his breath, the powerful healing technique combined with the teleport draining most of his stamina.